Tag: Paramount Plus

Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 8

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Dennie Gordon

It’s all come down to this. We’ve been on a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs to be sure, but this is the moment that fans wanted to see since the show was announced all those years ago. The Halo show finally gets to Halo, and lo, did the fanboys rejoice! Well, maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t; it’s going to be interesting to see how the fandom reacts now that we’ve gotten to where a lot of them felt we should have started, but we’re here to look at the episode itself and not the endless Reddit threads this is sure to produce! Is this a great finale for both fans of the show and fans of the game, or does trying to bring these two worlds together leave nobody happy? Let’s find out!!

With everyone converging on the Halo ring like a violent space version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, Chief (Pablo Schreiber) has the lead on everyone and can practically taste the perfectly preserved dirt on the planet’s surface when he realizes that he can’t just leave everyone else to die and so turns back around to join the battle; leaving Makee and The Arbiter (Charlie Murphy and Viktor Åkerblom) to call dibs on the ring shaped space station. What he doesn’t know, however, is that the artifact Miranda and Halsey (Olive Gray and Natascha McElhone) brought back from the secret alien laboratory is carrying something far more sinister than a mere fleet of Covenant starships. A long extinct spore known as The Flood has woken up and is hungry for meat which it finds readily on this human outpost, and so Kwan Ha and Soren (Yerin Ha and Bokeem Woodbine) need to find Kessler and Laera (Tylan Bailey and Fiona O’Shaughnessy) before they get caught in this grotesque outbreak that Kwan seems to have some sort of connection with even if she doesn’t quite understand it herself. With Chief trying to help the Spartan IIIs being led by Kai (Kate Kennedy), Makee fighting with Cortana (Jen Taylor and Christina Bennington) as they barrel ahead towards the ultimate weapon, and the rest of our heroes fighting off Space Zombies, will this be humanity’s last stand as they valiantly fight against impossible odds? What’s waiting for everyone if they do make it to the Halo ring, and will they have enough strength left to stop Makee? It’s taken us two seasons to get to the darn thing, so was the wait ultimately worth it!?

“Maybe the REAL Halo was the friends we made along the way.”     “What, like Makee?”     “Shut up, Cortana.”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 7

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Dennie Gordon

We’re over the hill and barreling down at lightning speed towards a conclusion that everyone is scrambling to get ready for. The last episode was certainly a lurch with how much they tried to cram in and how they tried to stitch it all together, but with that work out of the way, does this episode ramp up more organically as it takes us into the big finale? Let’s find out!!

With Chief and Cortana back in contact, there’s not much that can stand in his way as he gets revenge against Ackerson and finds his stolen armor. Of course, that ends up being small potatoes when it turns out that the Covenant fleet is within spitting distance of the Halo and the UNSC are still in bad shape after the attack on Reach. With little more than the barely trained Spartan IIIs to throw at the problem, Parangosky makes a fateful choice that puts Ackerson in a rather awkward position, and that’s before he runs into the mighty fists and burning wrath of Chief as well as Kai who is similarly ticked off about being lied to. Humanity’s hope may lie in what Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan have found in the caves of Onyx, if only they knew how to activate it, and time is running short as Makee and The Arbiter are on their way to the ring with little on their mind but salvation through utter annihilation. Can Chief put aside his anger long enough to save humanity now that the Covenant have their eyes on the celestial doomsday weapon? What secrets will we learn once Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan open the door to the long dormant secrets left beneath the surface of Onyx? I’m still unsure why ONI thought Chief was better suited as a dead poster than as a butt kicking warrior, but you do you, I suppose.

“Is it just me, or does the camera add ten pounds?”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 6

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

We are well over halfway through the season, and from the very start we knew that the destination was to have our characters arrive at the Halo ring before the end of it. The path to getting there, however, is still rather fraught as the show has made some bold moves in its breaks from canon, but we only have so long to replace it with a new status quo which isn’t getting any easier with the Spartan III program cramming itself in there as well. Still, the last episode got us back on track as far as I’m concerned, and I’m optimistic that they can get us over the finish line without falling flat on its face. Does this continue the upward trend of the season since the Fall of Reach, or are we falling back on bad habits now that we’re in-between set piece episodes? Lets’ find out!!

On the remote planet of Onyx, Kai (Kate Kennedy) is in charge of a new program spearheaded by Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) to create the next generation of warriors; the Spartan III program. Kai, being a Spartan II, is more than qualified for the role and is making great progress with the new recruits, including Perez (Cristina Rodlo), but the mission they’re training for seems hopeless, and the troops are far from ready for such a task. Things don’t get any easier for her when John (Pablo Schreiber) shows up and starts wrecking the place as he looks for answers and justice for what happened back on Reach. Meanwhile, the rest of John’s ragtag crew of misfits and outcasts are off doing their own thing with Soren and Laera (Bokeem Woodbine and Fiona O’Shaughnessy) searching for their son Kessler while Kwan Ha and Halsey (Yerin Ha and Natascha McElhone) are looking underneath the Onyx facility for something that will get them closer to the Halo ring. If that wasn’t enough drama, Makee (Charlie Murphy) and the Arbiter (Viktor Åkerblom) are having a tough time convincing the rest of the Sangheili crew that they know where they’re going; especially with the ship’s priest demanding that they turn around and ask the Prophet’s for directions. Will John get the answer he seeks from ONI and the UNSC, even if he has to go through Kai to get it? How much longer can Makee keep the Sangheili placated with promises of the Halo ring, and is Cortana going to help her out despite them being ostensible enemies? Maybe it’s a good tradeoff if it means she can actually get some screen time!

“If I could just get five more minutes-” “NO!” “I’ve got some killer knock-knock jokes!” “I SAID NO!!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 5

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

The Fall of Reach has come and gone with some surprising changes to the status quo and many questions to answer before we finally get to that darn ring everyone keeps talking about. Still, a big event like that needs some time to decompress so it’s time for a budget-friendly talky episode that I tend to enjoy much more than the action. Sure, it’s there if you want it, but a show has to be more than that and this season has had a bad track record of developing its characters and establishing themes. Will this be the turning point for the series that I’ve been waiting for, or is it back to business as usual after the big mid-season blowout? Let’s find out!!

With the fall of Reach, humanity is on the brink of annihilation as few defenses remain between The Covenant and Earth. The UNSC is fighting amongst itself due to the machinations of Ackerson and the ONI, Makee (Charlie Murphy) managed to get one of the sacred artifacts off Reach before it blew up, and Silver Team lost Vannak (Bentley Kalu) in all the chaos. While Chief, Halsey, Soren, and Riz (Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, and Natasha Culzac) were able to escape the planet with the help of Kwan Ha and Laera (Yerin Ha and Fiona O’Shaughnessy), there’s little hope to be found on that ship as they head their way to a remote mining planet where Soren and laera hope to find their son Kessler (Tylan Bailey). It’s a dark chapter for The Master Chief as the galaxy presumes him dead and the ONI did everything in their power to make it so. Chief is used to having his back against the wall, but with so much against him, can he get back on the saddle and finish the fight, wherever that fight may be? How is everyone else dealing with the fall of Reach and the loss of everyone there? Do you think maybe we can chill out on this planet for a while longer as it’s not bathed in constant darkness? I mean, it still doesn’t have sunlight but at least I can finally see what’s going on!

“Oh, wow! They got you good, didn’t they?”     “I know, right? Should have put on a helmet, at least.”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 4

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The Fall of Reach is perhaps the most significant event in the timeline; not necessarily for its impact on the Human Covenant War, but for its place in the fandom. If you just wanted to play the Halo games for their top notch gameplay and just let the story pass you by, that was perfectly fine and those kinds of players were the ones who drove the franchise to such dizzying heights of success and prestige. If you wanted to know more about the games, however, the first thing you learn is what happened to Reach. It’s the first book in the series, it takes place right before the first game, and it’s been poking around the more mainstream side of the franchise with the game in 2010 and the animated adaptation in 2015, so getting it right is going to be the biggest challenge for this season of the show. With so much at stake, can the new showrunners satisfy both fans of the games as well as fans of the show with their telling of this iconic chapter in the lore, or will Paramount be looking for yet another showrunner to try and correct the ship for season 3? Let’s find out!!

After trying to tell the UNSC that the Covenant were on Reach, John (Pablo Schrieber) is proven right as he and Corporal Perez (Cristina Rodlo) are caught in the opening Salvo of the invasion. With little time to spare, the two meet up with Riz (Natasha Culzac) and head to Fleetcom HQ to try and get a handle on things and hopefully find their power armor still intact. Sadly they won’t find it as Ackerson and the rest of the UNSC higher ups have taken all the good equipment and ran away while everyone else was still unaware that an invasion was imminent; leaving Admiral Keyes (Danny Sapani) and a small contingent of marines to try and hold the aliens at bay while they get as many civilians offsite as possible. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ackerson shows his sadistic side as he leaves the recently captured Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) and the long held captive Doctor Halsey (Natascha McElhone) to die in the basement prison of the Fleetcom building, and they have to find a way to escape as well. With so much death and destruction happening all around them, can this rag-tag crew of Spartans, Pirates, Mad Scientists, and Marines make a valiant last stand against such an overwhelming foe? What else did Ackerson and the UNSC leave behind that could prove even more fatal to humanity’s chances in this war than the destruction of Reach itself? How did the Covenant sneak this much firepower on the planet in the first place? They’re not exactly known for their subtlety.

“THEY’RE SHOOTING FIREWORKS AT US, SIR!”     “My god… our one weakness!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 3

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The season premiere left me underwhelmed, to say the least. For someone who genuinely enjoyed the first season and all its interesting creative choices, it was jarring to see so much of it thrown away in the pursuit of poe-faced solemnity. In any case, I said my piece last week and got it all out of my system so I’m ready to approach this episode much more on its own terms instead of comparing it to what came before. Well, okay. Maybe a little bit more griping, but hopefully it will be productive rather than simply nagging. Will this be the episode that turns me around on the season, or will my disappointment grow with each passing week? Let’s find out!!

With the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) certain that something is going on that Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and the UNSC aren’t telling him, he takes his crew on an unauthorized mission to search for the missing Cobalt Team and find evidence of whatever it is that The Covenant are up to. Of course, you can’t rock the boat without getting wet, and this little excursion puts a significant wedge between him and the rest of Silver Team (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) who are increasingly concerned about Chief’s erratic behavior; a feeling that Ackerson is happy to exploit as he continues to move all these pieces around in whatever game it is he’s playing. Reach isn’t the only place that’s having problems, however, as Laera, her son, and Kwan Ha (Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Tylan Bailey, and Yerin Ha) are now targets after Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) was taken prisoner by the UNSC. Without him around to play Pirate King, there are a lot of people looking to not just take the throne but whatever buried treasure Laera might know about. Can these three escape The Rubble without Soren’s past catching up to them? What can Chief do to stop The Covenant and save Cobalt Team now that the UNSC consider him unreliable and a threat to their secrets? I’m not convinced that the Master Chief is built for this kind of subterfuge. Did they even cover spy craft during his Spartan training, or did they look at this four hundred pound slab of meat and decide it was a lost cause?

There’s your first mistake! Any good spy knows not to eat anything offered to you!
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episodes 1 & 2

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Debs Paterson

I reviewed the first season of this show and thought it was pretty great, but I also know that my opinion was in the minority, and was unsure if we would even get a second season after the lukewarm reaction from everyone other than me. Thankfully, Paramount is willing to give this show another chance to find its audience and the last season gave us a great starting point to finally move us to the Halo ring and everything else that fans wanted to see in the series. Will season two finally get the ball rolling and bring the fans on board with what I thought made the first season so special? Let’s find out!

Our story ended with the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his fellow Spartans Kai, Vannak, and Riz (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) managing to escape from the Covenant with the artifact, but not without incurring losses. Makee (Charlie Murphy), the human adopted by the Covenant to activate the artifact, was shot down in the firefight and Chief was forced to let his AI partner Cortana (Jen Taylor) take full control of his mind and fry his personality to manage the escape. It’s some time later and while Chief is verbal again, he’s not the warm cuddly bear he was by the end of the last season. He’s taciturn and stiff with his fellow Spartans and his questions about his past and the ethics of the Spartan program no longer seem to be an issue. The Covenant have escalated their war efforts and are now destroying whole planets, including Madrigal which Kwan Ha and Soren (Yerin Ha and Bokeem Woodbine) fought for half of last season to liberate, and the entire planet of Reach has come down with a bad case of Blade Runner depression, though whether these changes are part of the story itself as humanity is starting to lose hope or are just a creative change is still unclear. To make matters worse, the UNSC seems to have turned whole hog into the Office of Naval Intelligence (the Section 31 of this franchise for those Star Trek fans out there), and not only did they take Cortana out of Chief without a proper explanation, they are going all in on the propaganda with the Spartans being treated more like props than warriors. All of this chicanery from the ONI has left Chief and his crew feeling useless while the Covenant are seemingly making moves that will undercut all of humanity’s defenses and turn the tide of the war in their favor. Can Chief and Silver Team figure out the Covenant’s secret plans despite ONI’s insistence on remaining in the dark? What does this escalation of violence from the Covenant mean for those either liberating themselves from the UNSC or choosing to live on the margins and stay out of the war entirely? Why is everything lit so poorly!? Did the UNSC lose all its funding?

“Can we open a window at least?”     “YOU GET SLIGHTLY OPENED BLINDS AND NOTHING MORE!!”
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Cinema Dispatch: 2022 June Catch Up

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

With an out-of-state trip followed by a hellacious cold, it has not been the most productive week for me and I sadly could not get this done by the end of last month. Still, it’s been a rather slow month of releases as only three or four big movies have come out in the last few weeks with everything else presumably scared off by Top Gun, so taking things a bit easy and reviewing them on my schedule may not have put me as far back as you’d think. In any case, we’ve got three movies that I saw in June, and I’m finally ready to talk about them! Let’s get started!!

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Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by John Rice & Albert Calleros

Beavis and Butt-Head (Mike Judge) are living their pointless teenage lives in the early nineties when they get into trouble and are rewarded with tickets to Space Camp. Through a convoluted series of misunderstandings and poor adult supervision, the duo is launched into space and find their way into a wormhole that sends them all the way to 2022; a revelation that is awe-inspiring to them as seeing the numbers 69 on a billboard. With nothing else to do and still barely comprehending the situation, the duo tries to make it back to their house so they can score with a hot astronaut lady and watch some more TV. Said astronaut lady (Andrea Savage) is now running for reelection as Governor of Texas and doesn’t want these two bringing up questions about that botched space mission, so she’s hunting them down with the help of her Lieutenant Governor and hapless lackey (Nat Faxon), while the Pentagon is following their movements believing them to be extra-terrestrials. Can Beavis and Butt-Head avoid death and dissection on their quest to score and eat nachos, or will the universe itself be torn to shreds in their quest for food and babes?

If Disney spewing their entire retro catalog at us in Chip & Dale didn’t make things clear enough, we are firmly in the throes of a nineties comeback which meant it was only a matter of time before Mike Judge and co dusted off this franchise for one last ride. Unlike other revivals, however, that try to remind you of the nineties with rose-tinted glasses, Judge and co are more interested in making two characters that were inextricably tied to that decade work as a modern property. To their credit, they mostly succeed as this movie is funny and a solid entry in the franchise, but even with the best of intentions it still feels a bit mired in the past. Transplanting them to modern-day with a very modern conceit (multiverses are the hot new thing these days) was a wise move and it does give Judge some room to air his grievances with modern life, though as is his style he tries not to get too preachy about it and lets his characters react to it rather than say much about it himself. They also flesh out the duo in ways that we hadn’t seen before which is certainly rewarding for fans, and I like that Beavis gets to open up a bit more and shows some genuine heart in this. It also puts into stark relief how much Butt-Head is the Moe Howard of this duo and he has some pretty nasty moments in here that almost make him the villain of the story which is honestly a lot more plot and drama than these two are used to. It’s pretty much what you’d want from a modern Beavis and Butt-Head as it’s solidly funny but is not breaking any new ground. As fun as all this is, however, there’s a point where they completely run out of steam and what is supposed to be the subtext of the entire franchise becomes laid bare in a way that is just not funny or interesting. The thing about Beavis and Butthead is that they may be foolish and ignorant teenagers, but they are able to move through life with little consequence because the rest of the world is just as foolish and ignorant as they are. Where Beavis and Butthead are driven by simplistic desires for food, sex, and cheap thrills, the rest of the world is consumed by ego, comfort, and minimizing their shame, and while they do get a good amount of mileage out of that in this movie, it feels like they wrote themselves into a corner and gave up on trying to make this a clever punchline and instead use it as a plot device. Once that happens, the movie never truly recovers and the final thirty minutes are somewhat of a slog as no one seems to know what to do anymore and are just jabbering back and forth to pad out the running time. There are plenty of franchises that go on long after they’ve run out of ideas and I commend Judge and co for picking their moments to bring these characters back. Still, there’s a bit too much of this that’s stuck in the nineties and the few jabs at modern society are not quite enough to pull it into the twenty-first century.

3 out of 5
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